


When Brandt becomes Will (sorta)

by little-jar (VanimaSpot)



Series: The four brothers [8]
Category: Mission: Impossible (Movies), Sherlock (TV), The Avengers (Marvel Movies)
Genre: ASL, Birthday Presents, Disney References, Nightmares, Sign Language, does kate counts as an avenger?, eventually Brandthan
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-11-23
Updated: 2017-11-23
Packaged: 2019-02-05 19:22:20
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 2
Words: 3,842
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12800667
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/VanimaSpot/pseuds/little-jar
Summary: After Rogue Nation, Ethan needs a place to stay. Will offers him his guest room in his apartment (he has all of Ethan's stuff because Benji, Jane and Luther couldn´t have it). Kate Bishop comes with Lucky sometimes, and Rosie Watson does an appearence.





	1. Chapter 1

**May 2016**

Ethan stays a few days in the IMF, now that he doesn't have an apartment thanks to the CIA. When he asks about his belongings, he finds out that Brandt has them. Benji says that he has them because he took them before the CIA went into his apartment to search for clues. Will did have a way to hide them. When he asks Will about it, he offers his spare room for him to stay for a while. He accepts.

He didn't know Will´s life was so full of movement. He always thought the man just sat on his living room and frown at the wall when he wasn't doing anything work related.

How wrong was he. He finds out the man does really have a lot of energy and smiles in him.

-.-.-.-.-

Will is taking a shower while Ethan is drinking coffee in the living room. A week into sharing space and there hasn’t been any problem. They had a free day and woke up after eight in the morning.  

Ethan hears someone running in the apartment upstairs, then they go out and into the hallway. A few minutes later he hears running in the hallway outside the floor he was in. He also hears a dog barking. Maybe one of the kids playing with their pet. A hurried knock at the door takes him out of his thoughts.

"Liam!"

Ethan gets up and goes to open the door and finds a girl and a dog. Before he can say anything the dog goes inside, barking in direction to the bathroom door. He looks back at the girl and sees her with a hand covered in a rag. There is blood in it. She looks at Ethan, without any surprise in her face and smiles at him. Ethan can't avoid it but look at her with a bit of astonishment.

"Hello. Is William here?" -she asks casually.

"What happened?" - Ethan asks instead.

"Oh! Just a cut with an arrow."- she shrugs and walks into the apartment.

Will comes out the bathroom finishing buttoning his shirt and sees the girl. The dog follows him into the living room and gets near the girl, between her and Ethan.

"Again? Let me get the first aid kit."- Will says when he looks at her.

He goes back inside the bathroom, while the girl and dog go and sit in the sofa. Ethan closes the door and follows them, receiving another smile from the girl and a head turn from the dog. Will comes out again and sits with the girl, leaving his back to Ethan. He sees the cut, cleans it, and bandages it. Ethan just sees from his perch at the other side of the couch.

"How is upstairs? Did you made a mess or not?"

"Umm maybe. Just a bit of blood in the living room and bathroom."

"And how until your mom gets home?"

She looks at the clock in the kitchen's wall and winces. She looks apologetically at Will.

"Fifteen minutes. Or less."

Will groans. Then, looks at Ethan, who is now watching them from the kitchen's counter.

"Can you take out a knife, a cutting board and some vegetables? We need an excuse as to why she cut herself. And I need to go clean upstairs."- he says pleadingly.- "And the only thing we haven´t done for dinner is salad, so…"

"Sure."

While Ethan starts getting everything for the salad out, Will goes to the refrigerator and takes out a box of juice. Before Ethan can ask or say anything, he goes back to the living room, throws the box to the girl (who agilely catches it with one hand) and then goes out; leaving the girl cleaning the medic kit and Ethan doing the salad. Ten minutes later there is a knock at the door. Kate jumps from the sofa, signs Ethan to be silent when she grabs the broom from the kitchen, goes back to the living room and taps with the broom three times the roof near window. Then leaves it and goes in direction of the door when there is a second knock.

"Coming!"- she yells.

She opens the door, smiling and with her injured hand behind her. Ethan is still in the kitchen, now cleaning the cutting board. From where he is, he can't see who is at the door.

"Hi, mom!"- says the girl with a big smile.

"Hi love."- answers the voice of a grown woman, who takes a step into the apartment and asks-"What are you hiding?"

The girl smiles now sheepishly and shows her hand to the woman. When she is inspecting her daughter´s hand Ethan can see her. A beautiful woman in her forties, long brown hair in a bun and a bit taller than him. He can see the similitude between the woman and the girl, same hair and nose.

"Where's William?- she says sternly after a minute.

"He is changing his shirt. He got blood on it while he was patching me up."

"William!"- the woman calls and enters completely into the living room, going in direction of Will´s bedroom.

"Yes?" -a voice answers, coming out of the master bedroom.

Ethan asks himself how he got back into his room without them hearing anything. Probably the window. Will comes to room before the woman can go any further. Now he is wearing a sweater. The mother stops in front of him and points at Will.

"Why is Kate hurt?"

"We were doing lunch! I swear."-he answers affronted, putting his hands up.

"Really?"

"Yeah. You can ask Ethan." -Will points with his chin at the kitchen.

The woman turns around and from behind her Will and Kate make pleading faces. The dog, which is still in the couch, weirdly enough does the same.

"Sorry I didn't see you there."- she says changing her voice; a lower, gentler, tone.

"Don´t worry."

"They were doing lunch?"

"Yes. We were."- he answers, showing her the cutting board he was cleaning.

She looks at them, the kitchen table and the sink still suspicious.

"I am going upstairs. If I find anything out of place you will hear me out. Ok?!."

"Ok!"- Kate and Will utter in unison.

She goes out of the apartment, closing the door behind them and they all breathe again. Will turns to the kitchen and putting his hands together looks at Ethan.

"Thank you!"- he says, then turns to the girl- "And you, stop getting me in trouble with your mother!"

"I will when you teach me how to use a gun!"

"That will never happen! Even I am against you using the bow and arrow. Which they are now confiscated!"

Ethan sees them discuss with each other from the door to the kitchen, where they start cleaning and putting everything in place. Ethan coughs and the other two look at him. He arches a brow at Will and looks from him to the girl.

"Oh, yeah, sorry. Kate, Ethan. Ethan. Kate."

"Nice to meet you. Will talks a lot about you."

"I don’t talk about my coworkers with you."

"No, you don't. Dad tells me so."

"Your dad is a nosy git."

"Don’t talk about your husband like that." -Kate whacks Will with a towel.

"Either way I am not lying."

They keep bickering, leaving Ethan a bit confused. Who is the girl? What about the husband? He wasn’t married, was he? His file didn’t say anything about that. He tries to ask but the girl likes to talk a lot, and apparently Will does too. With her. He asks her about her week, classes, ballet and the dog. Who is called Lucky and apparently likes pizza. But they don't mention the girl's dad.

When the girl goes away, it's late in the afternoon. The mother didn’t show up again, meaning she didn’t find anything incriminating. He and Will sit on the couch and put on the TV, something they been doing for a few days. They sit, change channels until they find something they like. Which, surprisingly is very often. That doesn't stop Ethan question.

“Why did she say husband?”

“Oh! That. It’s just because we get along very well. Even done some missions together.”

“Another agent? Who is he?”

“He is from another agency.”- he answers, now distracted with a documentary.

Another thing Ethan learned, when Will finds something that calls his attention, he completely focus on it. He does a lot of commentaries about it, and Ethan joins. They have had a lot of debates about different topics. He just drops the subject.

-.-.-.-.-

**June 2016**

A week before Will´s birthday, Benji starts pestering Ethan to do something for him. They make Will promise them that they will go out that saturday and then go back to his apartment to look at a movie. They called for a cake to be delivered when they are watching the movie. What they didn’t anticipate was that someone else got ahead of them.

They walk into the apartment and find the living room with a bunch of gifts.

"Oh, that was today."- they hear Will say in front of them, he turns to look at them- “That explains why you two were so insistent on going out.”

“The gifts are not ours!”- Benji squeaks.

Will snorts, motions them to go in and closes the door.

“I know. I recognize the packages and know who sent them.”

Will goes in and starts taking gifts in his hands, then takes the ones he could fit in his hands and takes them to his room. Benji looks at Ethan frowning, then looks at Will when he comes back.

“Don’t you want to open them?”- he asks.

“What? Oh! No. It’s ok. I can open them later.”- he smiles at them- “I want to spend my time with both of you first.”

Benji can’t help it and throws himself to hug Will. Then releases him and looks down to the couch with the gifts.

“It’s that a Captain America gift wrap?! Where do they got it? Can you ask them?”

Will starts laughing at his friend and his attention span. He promises Benji to ask about it. The other two help the birthday boy get the rest of the gifts to his room and settle back in the living room to watch a movie. Benji and Ethan try to look at the gif labels but most of them have drawings or initials.

“Don’t worry. Some day you will know some of them.”-Will tells them when they asks about the people behind those.

Later that night, Will laughs when the cake arrives. A Millennium Falcon cake. Clearly, Benji’s idea.

-.-.-.-.-

Will tends to put on movies and quote them while he does dinner or some other work in the apartment. Mostly, Disney movies. And when he thinks Ethan is out of the apartment.

Usually Ethan is out of the apartment for his morning run at 4 and comes back at 6. When he gets back Will is up and finishing breakfast. That day, he was so tired so he decided to don’t go out, which led him to an interesting discovery.

He woke up at the sound of music. The sound wasn’t so high, so he registered it a bit late. It came from the TV in the living room. He knew because he left his door ajar when he went out to the bathroom a while ago. Ethan turned and saw that it was almost five in the morning, his alarm was going to go off in a bit. He got up and turned it off, then stretched and got up the bed.

When he was taking out his clothes for the day he stopped. He heard again music, but this time a male voice accompanied the lyrics of the song. _Will was singing_ . Ethan left his clothes and creeped out of his room into the living room. The TV was on, with _Mulan_ of all movies on.

“Be a man! We must be swift as a coursing river!”

He saw Will in the kitchen making breakfast. Signing _I will make a man out of you_. Ethan couldn’t stop himself and snorted. He even was swaying to the song. Ethan wondered if Will did this every day he was out running. Surely he timed it so the movie ended before he came back.

Ethan walked and stopped at the kitchen’s door. He leaned on the door and waited for Will to see him.

“Mysterious as the dark side of the moon!”- at that part he spun a bit dramatically, looking right at Ethan.

He screamed. Which was hilarious when you had in mind he is a trained killer.

“Jesus Christ, Ethan!”-he put a hand in his chest-”I thought you were out.”

Ethan tried very hard not to laugh but failed. The red in Will´s face expanded to his ears and down his neck.

“Do you… do you normally do that when I am not here?”

“Just when I know that you won’t come back for a while… and not always…”

Will fumbles with the towel and turns back to keep doing breakfast. Ethan sits on the kitchen counter, elbows on the table. He waits for a bit and then talks.

“I don’t mind if you keep singing.”

Will frowns at him a bit, but after a while he starts quoting the movie. He doesn’t sing again, but hums the songs.


	2. Chapter 2

**July**

Of the few times Ethan has seen Will sleeping, two of them are memorable. One of them is on a mission, when they are sharing a bedroom. Will goes to sleep at 2 am, leaving him looking at the camera feed the rest of the night.

Sure, he has seen a lot of weird things in his life but this one is in his top 50. It is all right to hear someone talking in their sleep, or to see them snuggle or leave space in the bed for another body. All of that is normal. But to see them talking in sign language is another thing. It is weird, like very weird. Even when you didn't know that that person knew sign language. 

He knows a little bit and from what he has gathered the person is chastising someone. Well, that it's not weird considering the person who is doing the signing. 

At first, he saw Will turn into his back. Curiously enough, he turned in the same spot he was, leaving space for another body at his side. It seemed he was used to sleep with someone else. Then, he saw him moving his hands and arms. At first he thought he was making himself comfortable but then he saw a pattern. He was signing. 

Ethan sees Will moving his hands and understands the sign for 'idiot'. Then, 'stop' and 'dangerous'. The recurrent sign he sees but doesn’t understand is the letter C and it been pulled towards his chest. Maybe it’s the name of the person he is chastising.

Now, he understands why Will went to bed and slept in his stomach, with his hands tucked between the bed and his chest.

He thinks on sending a video to Benji but thinks better about it. He doesn’t want Will to be angry at him… more that’s it. After a bit, he goes back still and doesn’t move until he wakes up a few hours later. 

-.-.-.-.-

The second that something happens is after a mission, in the apartment. That week was a bit rough, more for some than others. They were following a dealer but on their way they found a dead family. Ethan is the last one to go home the day they had to debrief in the IMF. When he comes to the apartment, he finds Will slept in the couch. He lets him be and goes to the kitchen for something to eat. He was starving.

"No, no, no."- he hears Will start saying, still on the couch.

Will sits on the couch, breathing hard. He stars looking for something at his sides. Ethan goes near him and Will sees him, but at the same time he doesn’t. His eyes are wild and teary. Before Ethan can say anything Will says hurriedly. 

"I need a knife."

He extends his hand towards Ethan. He goes closer, looking at any reason why the man needed a knife. He found none.

"What for?"- Ethan asks.

"Don’t you see!?"- he says exasperatedly, moving his hand around him-"We need to get her out!"

"Get her out? Who?"

Will sighs irritated at Ethan. He keeps looking around him, searching for a knife. Ethan feels like Will is daydreaming and hopes that he does the right thing to help him. 

"Who, Brandt?"

"The baby!"- he answers, now looking at Ethan- "We need to get her out before she stops breathing."

Ethan then remembers their mission, the family and their baby girl. She died asphyxiated; Will was having a nightmare about it. But what does the knife has to do with anything? He gets nearer, lifts his hand but stops. He doesn’t know how the other would react if he touched him.

"Brandt. Look at me and around you. There isn't a baby here, you are dreaming. You are in your apartment."

Will looks at Ethan, but then his sight goes to the kitchen, in the direction of the knives at the counter. He stands up but Ethan stops him, grabbing him by the shoulders and pulling him down. 

"Brandt… William. Look at me."

He does. Apparently using his name helped a bit. The fog in his eyes starts going away. Will blinks fast a few times, then looks around him. He takes a deep breath and leans forward. His forehead ends up touching Ethan's shoulder. 

"She is all right. The baby… Rosie, yes, she is alive. She is not here. She is in London."- Will starts mumbling, but Ethan still understands him- "Today she is four years, five months and two weeks old. She was born the eleventh of august… in a warehouse…"

Ethan recognizes the grounding exercise, where you say your name, place and hour. Even if he was using another person for it. He also notices that the dream wasn’t about the mission, he was reliving another experience. The mumbling starts getting jumbled and Will completely relaxes, until he just passes out in Ethan's arms.

The next day they behave as if nothing happened. Will does ignore Ethan a bit, even though is hard to do it when they are in the same apartment and no where to go. Before lunch, Ethan hears Will talking on the phone outside in the balcony. 

"Hey, how is Rosie?... Good… No, yeah. I am ok… Just a nightmare… No, no. You don't have to come… Really?... When? Do I have to take care of her?... Yes, I think I can do it… Will you crash here or… Oh, really?... Of course the posh boy would do it… Ok. Call me when you get here… Me too. Ok, bye."

Five days later Ethan comes back to the apartment to a crime scene. Not a real one, per sey. There is post-it note at the door that read  _ Ongoing Crime Scene, Please knock before entering _ . He did so (after he checked if he was at the right door) and Will opened the door. In his hands there was a four-year-old girl, with a blue coat and a scarf. 

“Hey! Umm… so… this is Rosie.”-he looked back at the baby, that was looking at him frowning- “Sorry. Detective Rosie. He is my friend Ethan.”

That made the girls smile and she patted Will´s left cheek with her little hands, like she was patting a dog. Then she puts  [ her hands up in front of her, right hand high while left hand went from the top to below the right hand ](https://www.signingsavvy.com/sign/ADMISSION/8006/1) . 

“Well, you have permission to enter the crime scene.”-Will said and put the girl on the floor when she started squirming- “Everything is on the living room, but don't touch anything.”

“A crime scene?”-Ethan asked while he got in.

He looked at the living room and saw that the couches were closer, doing a square shape with the TV´s desk. Around the couches was a strip on yellow tape at the bottom that said Crime Scene everywhere. Looking closer, it was handmade. In the middle of everything there was a bunch of plushies. A bear was lying on the floor, with a plastic knife on a side. Near them was a elephant and giraffe, and a bit away an otter and hedgehog. Outside the tape line, behind a window curtain, there was a spider. 

“Yup. She wanted to play. Today she chose a crime scene.”-Will was now behind the big couch, watching the girl getting into the “scene” and looking around. 

“I got that. But why?”

Will looked at him as if he didn't understand why Ethan was asking that. Like if what was going on was a normal thing to do with kids. Then, he understood and made an O face. 

“Her parents are detectives. His dad… often shares information with her. Cause he says she is smart and he resolves it quicker when he talks with smart people.”-he looks back at her and smiles- “And I couldn't say no to her.”

Ethan looks back at the girl when she turns at Will.  [ She crosses her hands at the wrists in front of her and wiggles her fingers while lowering her hands ](https://www.signingsavvy.com/sign/SPIDER/2588/1) . Then goes to get the spider from the window.

“Very good, you found the culprit.”

Rosie goes into the center of the scene, near the bear, but stops suddenly. Ethan sees how her face lights in recognition, making an O face. He saw the resemblance in both the girl and Will, but shook his head. Will wasn’t the parent, they probably spend some time together for her to pick some mannerisms. 

“No!”-she said and looked at Will.

“What? What happened?”-Will asked making a troubled face.

She pointed at Will, who put a hand in his chest and gasped. 

“I am innocent!”

“Nuh uh.”

“Yes, I am. Am I running away?”-he asks the little girl.

She makes a troubled face at that, but before she can do anything else Will starts running to the kitchen. She squeals and goes running behind him. 

Later that night, after Will went out to return the girl, he tells Ethan about Rosie. He doesn't use names or places, he just tells him what he felt when they saved her. He now understood the nightmare. 

“There a lot I want to tell you… you and the team… I want to tell you about my whole life because I know I can trust all of you. But… just… not yet.”

Ethan nods at him. He can wait a bit more. What else could be he hiding? 


End file.
